Objects of Affection

I've spent the past many months hunkered down in my studio creating a new body of work. This group of drawings and paintings are on view now at the lovely Carrie Haddad Gallery, which has represented my work for over 20 years. I'm excited to share with you, a peak of the show, "Objects of Affection".

As well as recent works on canvas, I also included a new series of drawings titled Drawing Summer. Here is a wonderful over view from the gallery. 

"Jenny Nelson unveils new charcoal drawings for this exhibit, instilling an exciting twist in her oeuvre that until recently consisted largely of oil paintings. Using a similar abstract language to her works on canvas, Nelson seeks to get to the root of her painting practice with the series entitled “Drawing Summer”. Three works from the series will be on view, where the artist takes a step back into the representational realm, rendering a tabletop still life with zinnias in a greyscale of charcoal against the backdrop of her Hudson Valley studio. The exhibit will also feature a body of Nelson’s latest paintings which relate and connect to the drawings, inviting the viewer to question where observational details end and imagination begins." 

 Drift, 2025, oil on canvas, 30 x 60 inches

Paintings in conversation 

Sweet Small Talk, 2025, oil on canvas, 48 x 42 inches

 Twin Workstation #1, 2023, oil on canvas paper, 24 x 36

Tree Song, 2025, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

 May, 2025, oil on canvas, 48 x 42 inches

Golden, 2025, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

From the Drawing Summer series

Drawing Summer 2, 2025, charcoal on Strathmore paper, 37.75 x 30 inches framed

 Drawing Summer 1, 2025, charcoal on Strathmore paper, 37.75 x 30 inches framed

 Working loosely from the still life 

Drawing from life connects my eye to my hand. As I set up a still life, I join two sensibilities together, observation and abstraction. I want to render the flowers, but at the same time, my strong inclination to abstract all things takes over. Behind the vases and blooms, I start taping cut out paper shapes on the wall. They create an abstract background that works its way into the drawing and serves as a mysterious assortment of dark and light forms in which the flowers can live.

With my drawing sensibility as a foundation, I can imbue my abstract paintings with life and structure. I can conjure and imply form with the use of minimal and considered lines. The two ways of seeing work hand in hand. 

From Life 1, 2025, charcoal on Strathmore paper, 24 x 18 inches 

Applying paint is sensitive, but charcoal is hypersensitive. The slightest pressure or smudge with the fingertips, and a drawing can shift from recognizable imagery to a grouping of magical, abstracted marks. Sometimes the objects remain somewhat intact, but other times they disappear, retaining only volume and values. A sensory memory in grey scale. 

Summer Sketch, 2025, charcoal on Strathmore paper, 18 x 23 inches

Observing objects in space allows me to ask, what is in front? What is behind? Where do elements overlap? It opens up a sense of spatial awareness that informs my abstract paintings in unexpected ways.

Many thanks to the Carrie Haddad Gallery and Co-directors Lena Petersen and Linden Scheff.